October 22025

  Seika Hitoishi was a dashing rogue, the captain of the Silver Heart, a magnificent spaceship measuring five kilometers from bow to stern, with luxurious gilded halls, covered in lascivious paintings. As the leader of a galaxy-wide smuggling ring, she had money in such vast quantities that she measured her wealth in star systems. It wasn’t a rare occurrence that she would exchange a whole planet under her control for an artifact she was after, or even a single night with a galaxy-renowned courtesan.

  She wielded a rapier forged from the most durable, yet flexible metal in the galaxy, sharpened until its edges were only one molecule thin, allowing it to slice through almost everything – and for those things it couldn’t cut, it had a force field generator built in, which disrupted the molecular structure of anything she hit, letting her slice it like warm butter.

  Paired with this already magnificent weapon, she also sported a laser pistol, its decorative grip carved from the last surviving specimen of an alien tree said to house the soul of a god worshipped by the former inhabitants of the now barren world it came from.

  She was a force to be reckoned with, and her greed knew no bounds, be it for women or riches!

  Miori Takeuchi was a priestess of the Order of Holy Anger. Beautiful like an angel, and just as wrathful, she wandered the galaxy, seeking any opportunity to spread the will of her goddess. Wearing nothing but her nun’s robes, a set of cybernetic wings and an artificial halo that could, on command, be as bright as the sun itself, she wielded a flaming sword that doubled as a flame thrower and carried a piece of a saint’s bone in its hilt. Her goddess rewarded her zeal in the past with the ability to shrug off and heal any wounds inflicted on her, as well as heal those of her allies with blue holy flames that were cool to the touch for the faithful.

  Last but not least, Ayame Takanashi was an elvish mage. A mercenary, hired by the smuggler as a bodyguard and guide in all things esoteric, she wielded destructive forces of nature, though she always had to guard her mind, lest nature controlled her and degraded her mind into that of a wild beast. Shunned by her own people for mingling with humans, she was a lone wolf who could very well turn into a literal one.

  These three odd figures came together to hunt for a legendary artifact, buried deep in the cursed fortress of Blackstone, the capital city of a remote backwater planet. No one had ever laid eyes on said artifact, but for Seika it only meant that it had to be rarer than anything she ever possessed, while Miori went along to confirm whether or not it was a holy relic of her goddess. Ayame, however knew more about it than she let on, and part of her desired to use the artifact to achieve even greater power as a sorceress.

  Three souls, with so different motivations entered the dangerous fortress, bound by an uneasy alliance. Will it hold long enough for them to get past the monsters, traps, and shifting corridors of its interior and reach the treasure vault, or will their alliance crumble under the weight of self-interest? Will any of them return triumphant, or will there just be three more sets of bones decorating the corridors?

  October 2025

  “And that’s your characters and the short summary of the setting!” the girl towering over the lovers declared. She was a mousey girl, with deep eye bags, wearing large glasses. Her black hair was tied into a ponytail, and her fingertips were stained with various colors, some of them in narrow, purposeful streaks, like she painted them on herself.

  More important than that, she was a human of normal size, while Seika, Miori and Ayame were reduced to what their captor called ‘Heroic Scale’, or, in more concrete terms, they were around three centimeters small.

  “And have you considered that we don’t want to play your games, maybe?” Ayame complained loudly, shouting so that her small voice would carry to the giant woman.

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind a few games with miniature kits…” Seika started and Miori cut her off with gentle pats on her head.

  “Yes, yes, my dear otaku wife, but shush, the well-adjusted adults are talking.”

  “Hey!”

  Earlier this evening, the three of them went out for dinner while Arisu was out with Mana. They went back to the place that served western style pasta with Japanese ingredients and intended to enjoy a nice, quiet evening together. The mousy girl towering above them right now was their table neighbor at said place, who listlessly observed them while eating her own portion, all on her own.

  When they ate, they noticed a slightly off taste, and finally woke up wherever this place was, so Seika concluded that whatever powers this girl had to shrink them like this, she either cast them on the trio after they were unconscious from eating spiked food, or maybe whatever she put on their food was already connected to her powers. Miori now spoke to the towering woman.

  “Let us go, or you will be very sorry!” she announced and raised her left hand. She stopped and blushed as she noticed the painful absence of her ring.

  “Ah! Looking for these?” the woman asked and lifted their Deogemma jewelry into view. Bellona’s ring, Minerva and Pallas’ earrings, and even Ayame’s Kuma Group hand mirror were there.

  “Yeah, uhm, I could sense that these were trouble. They’re also shouting at me when I’m holding them, so I’ll put them aside for now…”

  The woman stood up and moved away from the large table she held Seika, Ayame and Miori on, and while she looked for a box to store the trio’s transformation items in, Seika could get a proper look at their surroundings, while her wives were busy shouting at the woman to turn them back to normal size.

  They themselves were on a large dinner table, like the one they had in their apartment, even though this woman appeared to be living alone. Her walls were covered in shelves, the kind with large quadratic holes that one could store big boxes in, like those of Gunpla kits. And they were filled with boxes. To Seika’s surprise, none of them were actually Gunpla or similar model kits, but rather plastic fantasy and sci-fi miniatures at a small scale. Knights in spiky, overdesigned armor, their futuristic equivalents, vampires, trolls, orcs who wielded either crude obsidian cleavers or somehow even cruder machine guns, killer robots with energy blasters, and there were even boxes that looked like they contained a whole scenario, or board game.

  One of these scenario boxes was lying open on the table, Seika realized. The girl had cards, tokens, dice and more laid out, and the ground under Seika’s feet was a hexagonal carboard piece with an illustration of a cobbled floor on it, with the occasional decorative dirt or human skull.

  As she turned around, she saw a desk with a large, stepped rack holding small pots of acrylic paints, an array of bright lamps and even a DSLR camera mounted right on top of it. A monitor on eye level displayed what the camera was pointed at, which was currently a half-painted miniature of a sort of warrior nun. A cup of water sat in a holder, and an assortment of brushes in another rack on the table with fitting holes for the handles, right next to a paper towel dispenser.

  Other walls were covered in glass shelves, displaying whole armies of painted miniatures in bright colors, each of them a small piece of art in of itself.

  Whoever this girl is, she’s passionate about all this.

  “Give them back! What do you want with us?” Miori shouted, and the girl came back, giving the group an awkward grin.

  “Oh, don’t be like that! It’s going to be fun, I promise!” she said, entirely ignoring the protests of the two furious women, while Seika furrowed her brow and kept scanning her environment. Their host set up the table, and then she cast her magic, visible for the first time for the three miniaturized women. The hexagonal cards on the table shivered, and then stone walls erupted from the edges, causing Ayame and Miori to step closer towards Seika. A roof was added, and they were completely in some sort of dungeon, with a locked door behind them and only a dark path ahead.

  Seika let her eyes wander and noticed that their clothes changed as well; she wore a colorful trench coat with the fur of some kind of exotic animal decorating her shoulders, while Miori was dressed in a nun’s robe with mechanical wings sprouting from her back, and Ayame was dressed in wizard robes. Their clothes were a little more modest than Seika would have expected from an otaku hobby – and she was a little bit disappointed, particularly after having another look at Miori, now dressed as a nun. Modestly.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by their host clearing her throat noisily and narrating the scene for them.

  “Following a tip from a business contact, Seika Hitoishi and her retinue learned about the existence of a rare artifact of unknown power, hidden deep inside the cursed fortress. After bribing and threatening the people of Blackstone City, a cowardly little wretch guided them to a hidden door in the moat, though the moment they stepped inside, the door was locked behind them. The only way out is forward!”

  Ayame grumbled, examining herself in her wizard robes, with her mechanical staff. She looked at the ceiling.

  “Is this fantasy or scifi? I’m getting mixed information, here…”

  “Uhm, it’s… both… faster than light is done with, uhm… magic. And dragons and necromancers and stuff exist. Some with genuine magic, others use nanomachines to…” their host was about to go into a lengthy explanation and Miori let out a sigh.

  “Can we get a move on? We just have to finish this ‘quest’ or whatever and then we can leave, yes?”

  “Come on, at least try to get a little into it!” their host complained in a small voice, and Seika put a hand on Miori’s shoulder before urging her to go ahead. Their little group traversed the dungeon corridor. It wasn’t long until the path split in two in front of them. Seika heard cards being shuffled, with two being put down on the table before their host spoke again.

  “Now you must choose! Do you go left or right?”

  Ayame and Miori turned towards Seika, and for the first time since their arrival she could see a little bit of lighthearted mischief in their expressions.

  “Well, since you’re so into it, and since you’re the boss, the smuggler who hired us in the first place, why don’t you choose?” Ayame suggested and Miori nodded. Seika tilted her head, but she didn’t offer any complaints as she stepped forward and looked down both of the split corridors. Naturally, she couldn’t see anything, save for the distant flickering of torches, so she trusted her gut.

  “We’ll go left,” she announced, and her wives nodded before following her. The corridor remained the same, a dark brick hallway with the occasional torch supplying the adventurers with light, while the sound of a card being flipped came from above.

  “Ah! Ah, that’s a… a combat encounter, yes! Give me a moment!”

  Rattling could be heard through the fake ceiling of their summoned environment and soft clacks of cardboard pieces being pushed against other cardboard pieces followed soon after.

  “Just a moment, I just have to put together the floor plan like on this card and, uh…”

  Miori raised a brow and looked at Seika, who only shrugged her shoulders in return.

  “…wait, you’re not truly creating this dungeon with your powers?”

  “Hm? Ah, ah, no… I’m just bringing the game pieces to life. One moment…!”

  More clacking and rustling. Their host was digging through her box, placing various things and double-checking the arrangements. Then the corridor in front of the trio lit up and they saw it open into a giant hall, filled with various banquet tables, strange, humming and glowing equipment standing by the walls, and dark crystalline objects of various geometric shapes that floated in the air. Seika could make out armored people in the distance. Humans, from what she could tell, all clad in the same armor made of blackened steel, wearing red capes. The mousey girl cleared her throat again.

  “You enter a large hall that used to hold banquets. It has long been in decline, thanks to the occupants of the cursed fortress, the black legion of the dreaded necromancer Erebus!”

  The girl muttered something under her breath after saying that. Seika could have sworn that she cursed said Erebus under her breath for some reason, but she felt no need to probe her about that.

  “So, what now?” Seika inquired.

  “Ah, yes! In this room there are three treasures. They are usually where the groups of enemies start. You all take turns, and by that, I mean, I’m shuffling a deck of your initiative cards and the enemy group initiative cards and then I’m placing them from left to right and that means that’s the order in which…”

  “We get it, we get it! And when it’s our turn?” Ayame interrupted her explanation.

  “You get to move, and you get to do an action. Like picking up a treasure, or attacking, or shooting. This game is very simplified, so Miss Miori’s flame thrower is a shooting attack, and Miss Ayame only has one spell to attack. But, but! If you roleplay well, you get inspired and your attacks get stronger!”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Seika couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at the earnest enthusiasm in the girl’s voice, despite the circumstances. She let out a quiet sigh, then she nodded towards the ceiling.

  “You know our names. Can I ask for yours?”

  “Ah? I… I’m Rinko.”

  “Nice to meet you, Rinko. Don’t you think it would be nicer if you let us out of here and we play the game normally?”

  There was a long moment of quiet before an answer came.

  “If I turn you back, you’ll just leave, and I’m back to being alone with all of these games…” Rinko spoke quietly. Right now, Seika felt like the projected ceiling of the dungeon served to hide their host’s sad face from them.

  “Well, tell us who moves first,” Seika announced, nodding towards Miori and Ayame, who regarded her with some confusion, but ultimately nodded in turn to signal that they would follow her example.

  “Ah, right! First turn is… Ayame! You can move four fields!”

  “Fields?” Ayame looked around, and just at that moment, the ground below them was marked with glowing white lines, dividing the floor into hexagonal fields.

  “Ah, right… here I go, then!” Ayame announced, moving ahead. And just as she passed four lines on the ground, the lines turned red. Ayame raised a brow and cheekily tried to move a little further, but it looked like she hit an invisible wall.

  “Ah, you can’t go further than your maximum movement range…! S-sorry.”

  The earnest apology surprised Ayame enough that she stepped back from the border and cleared her throat.

  “Don’t… worry about it. I was just curious what might happen.”

  “Okay…! Well, you’re in range of three bad guys. Want to attack them with your magic?”

  Ayame looked at one of the groups of black-clad enemies, who stared her down and growled her way, then she furrowed her brow.

  “I don’t like the way they look at me, so, sure.”

  “Alright! You use your spell ‘Fae Fire’. Since three guys are standing together on one field, you can choose to either target one of them and throw two eight-sided hit dice, or you can attack all of them who stand on one panel and throw one six-sided hit die for each of them.”

  “You lost me,” Ayame said with a raised brow.

  “Oh! Uhm, one moment.”

  The ceiling disappeared and Rinko leaned over the field, holding three different dice in her hand. A normal, six-sided die that was grey, a purple eight-sided one, and a green twelve-sided die.

  “These are the hit die.” She explained, rotating them to show the various sides. Some sides were completely empty, others showed either one or two target reticles.

  “Every die in this game has four sides that have nothing on them, which means that they are a failed roll. The rest of the sides are evenly split between successes and critical successes. Therefore, the more sides your hit die has, the better your chances!”

  “And what’s that about throwing multiples? Do I add the result together, or…?”

  “Oh, no!” Rinko interrupted. “You pick the better result. Throwing multiple of the same kind means you’re increasing your chances by, uh… I haven’t really done the math, but it’s pretty good. Usually, the same of two are also a little better than just one of the next-higher dice.”

  “Right. I think I’ll try hitting them all at once.”

  “Okay! I’ll throw the dice for you, so just focus on doing your attack! Let’s aim for ultimate immersion!” Rinko announced with no little happiness in her voice, and Ayame looked back to Seika and Miori; Seika gave her a quick thumbs-up and Ayame pointed her staff towards the armor-clad adversaries. A small blue flame shot out, and as it touched the first of the trio, it exploded in a large fireball that swallowed them. Screams and clattering armor could be heard, and as the flames died down, they could see one of the armored humans on the ground, the next clutching his side and another dodged the attack wholly by jumping out of the way.

  “There you go! One dead, one wounded, the other wasn’t hit.”

  The dead soldier in front of them vanished in a swirl of smoke, leaving behind a plastic miniature depicting him in a combat pose. The ceiling vanished once more, and Rinko picked it up to put it aside.

  “Right! Next up, Miori!”

  “I’ll go and support Ayame,” Miori announced, stepping forward. She stopped right next to her and the two quickly grabbed each other’s hands, squeezing them, before she looked at the ceiling, waiting for instructions.

  “Your ranged attack is ‘Holy Fire’, which is, like, a flame thrower. You’re still out of range for that, but you have higher movement than Ayame, so one more step and you’ll be in range.”

  Miori nodded, then she took one more step towards the group of henchmen. She pointed her flaming sword towards them and soon after, fire burst forth and engulfed them.

  After she was done, all of them were lying dead on the ground and Rinko quickly retrieved the game pieces.

  “Okay! They would have been next, so their turn is skipped! Seika, your turn please.”

  Seika looked at her two girlfriends and then in the other direction, towards the next group. Those were two ruffians in black armor, gesturing rudely towards her. Seika stepped towards the pair, stopping at some distance.

  “Right, you can fire your pistol multiple times from here. But they’re behind cover, so all damage you do will be reduced by one! Meaning if you land a critical hit, it’s just a normal one, and if you land a normal hit, you do no damage.”

  “Well, that’s complicating things a little,” Seika commented, but she aimed her pistol at the nearby enemies. She pulled the trigger as many times as Rinko allowed her to, and she watched the laser beam burn holes into the overturned banquet table that her two adversaries took cover behind. Two of her three shots burned through the table, and she heard a grunt behind, as well as the sound of a heavy suit of metal armor hitting the ground.

  “One down, one to go! It’s their turn now!” Rinko announced, and the survivor jumped out of cover, running towards Seika. She blinked, readying her rapier and moved to block him, but he weaved past her guard and slashed her across the chest with his crude sword.

  Seika heard Miori and Ayame shout, but she quickly raised her hand to show them that she was alright.

  “Oof, that’s one regular wound on you, Seika. Your number of attacks has been reduced,” Rinko announced. Ayame had a hand on her chest and took a deep breath, while Seika examined herself. The attack left a red glowing streak on her body that quickly disappeared again. She felt no pain.

  “So, these attacks don’t hurt us for real?” she asked and looked at the ceiling.

  “Eh? Why… why would they?! It’s a game!” came the shocked reply and Seika let out a little chuckle. Her last worries about their host had just dissipated.

  “You wouldn’t believe the things we went through, Rinko. But I won’t bore you with any of that, let’s play!”

  ***

  Ayame and Miori sprinted for Seika’s location as the latter was engaged in a duel. She utilized her rapier, though apparently, she got a rather bad roll, and the ruffian parried her without much issue. Seika braced herself as the black-armored brute motioned to swing for her, but then it was like a combat sense she didn’t even know she possessed took hold of her. She parried the blow, and then it was like she could see all the weaknesses in his guard. She thrust her blade forward and impaled her adversary, who slumped down on the ground, just in time as her wives reached her.

  “Are you alright, Seika?” Miori asked and held her hands out. Blue flames engulfed her and she wanted to twitch back a little until she remembered the introduction of Miori’s powers. Her injuries weren’t real, but neither was this healing. Still, she felt a little bit better after that.

  While all of this was happening, the final group of enemy soldiers approached them, abandoning their cover to charge.

  Ayame stepped in front of them, facing down the three soldiers. She channeled a magic attack that hit the first square in the chest and threw him to the ground. His corpse was soon devoured by vines wildly sprouting from the hole in his chest. The other two kept running and Ayame readied herself for their counter-attack, but the first man’s swing went through her guard and hit her in the arm. She yelped, stepping aside while the next man attacked Miori.

  She parried with her flaming sword, and after that exchange she brought it down, cleaving the man clean in half and cauterizing the wounds.

  Seika quickly brought out her laser pistol and shot the last approaching man in the chest before he could reach her, and he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The trio let out a sigh of relief once the ordeal was over with, and Miori quickly healed Ayame’s wounds as well, then they approached one of the spots where the enemy soldiers started out in, just like Rinko explained at the start.

  There was a little pile of gold.

  “Congratulations! You’re getting some treasure! Now you just have to head to on of the exits to advance to the next level!” Rinko’s voice instructed them. It was only now that Seika realized that the past events had still been part of the game – once the rules were explained and they let themselves get lost in the flow of everything, it was truly an immersive experience.

  Their game became a regular dungeon crawling experience. Every map they found themselves on had enemy groups, either made up of the same, black-armored soldiers with crude bladed weapons and guns, or more exotic creatures. There were cyber vampires, parasitic burrow ogres, toxic slimes and more, and every so often the trio had to complete a challenge instead of a fight, like guessing a safe combination in a game of elimination. The treasures they found in the combat arenas turned out to be useful exploration items, like additional weapons, first aid supplies to heal their wounds, or clues to where the real treasure was hidden.

  After a few rooms and challenges like that, they were allowed to make their way back into Blackstone City, which served as a sort of adventure hub, where they could use their found treasures to trade for various equipment.

  Seika was happy with this turn of events, and that Ayame and Miori were getting into it a little as well, however after a while there was a small, nagging feeling at the back of her head.

  “…how long have we been at this?” she suddenly asked, looking at the ceiling.

  “Hm? Uh it’s… ah? Ah?!” the reply came, which didn’t fill Seika with all too much confidence.

  “I’m so sorry! It’s been four hours.”

  Miori suddenly jumped up and her eyes went wide.

  “Arisu could come home at any moment! I have to make dinner for her!”

  “Ugh, I have a lengthy presentation for our newest clothing line tomorrow, and I’d like to get a long night of sleep in before that,” Ayame continued. Seika gave both of them a nod and looked up towards the ceiling.

  “I think that’s enough for today, yes?”

  “But… will you come back?” Rinko’s small voice carried uncertainty and sadness, causing Seika to let out a long sigh, rubbing the back of her neck.

  “I’ll be honest. The three of us will probably not be able to spend many evenings like this with you. We all have our separate schedules, especially with Miori who works at night most of the week. When we have the opportunity, we want to spend time with each other, you know?”

  “Oh…”

  “However…!” Seika smiled towards the ceiling, at Rinko’s hidden face behind it.

  “Our daughter and her friend might want to spend some time with you. And other than them, I might know some people…”

  Her words were met with a few seconds of silence, then the environment around the trio shrunk and dissipated, as their bodies changed back into their normal sizes.

  ***

  Miori and Ayame left immediately, while Seika stayed behind, sitting on the office chair by Rinko’s painting table. She admired a few of the miniatures, holding them close to her eye as she looked at the transitions between various colors that were almost seamless.

  “You’re talented, these look really good!”

  “A-aha… well, I’m no way as good as some of the people who put up videos on the internet,” Rinko deflected her praise.

  “That doesn’t matter much, does it? Your miniatures look great, better than most people could achieve, I’d guess. You can be proud of that.”

  The girl nodded and looked at her folded hands in her lap, then back at Seika.

  “Why did you… uhm… why weren’t you angry with me?”

  “I could tell that you weren’t malicious. Just… lonely. Will you tell me a bit about that?” Seika put the miniature back on the painting table, looking Rinko directly in the eyes.

  “Uhh… I’m…” Rinko struggled a little with her words, so Seika got up, reaching out for her hand and giving it a little squeeze.

  “As a kid, I saw these stores with miniatures, and people playing together. I always wanted to be a part of that, but I couldn’t afford it yet. Now I’m an adult, and I have the income to buy these things, but…”

  Tears accumulated in Rinko’s eyes, but Seika could see that she was holding them back as best as she could.

  “I don’t have friends. There’s no one in my family with similar interests. I try to get the boxed game sets to family gatherings on holidays because we played board games sometimes, but they just shut me out. The rules are too complex, they say, they’d rather play match-four or something like that.”

  Rinko stared at the ground and her tears fell to the ground.

  “I love these games. I love painting the miniatures, I love creating my own color schemes, make up stories behind them, build thematic sets… I livestream my painting sessions sometimes and I have a few people who watch me, but… everyone’s far away and can’t play. It’s so lonely.”

  Seika reached out to touch Rinko’s shoulder, gently squeezing before the girl continued.

  “I got these strange powers a few days ago. Some small fairy said that I can beat my loneliness with them, but I think she was just having fun at my expense.”

  Seika shook her head, smiling.

  “Well, whatever her intentions were, you now met us. You met me. So, things might be working out for you, after all, hm?”

  The girl looked at Seika with tears streaking down her face, and, finally, she managed a warm smile.

  ***

  “I can still learn from you, it seems. I would have beaten her up the moment I was freed,” Minerva commented in Seika’s mind as she walked down the street, back home.

  “I’ve come to see that not every ‘villain’ we meet is a one-dimensional bad person. Maybe even Scotus has his reasons, even if they are antithetical to our lives,” Seika commented, looking at the starlit sky above.

  “Not that I’d spare him, however. He has made it clear that he has his eyes on my daughter, and even though I’m not ‘experienced’ as a mother, I will protect my girl with all our might.”

  “She might become stronger than us and protect you instead,” Minerva teased and Seika let out a little snort.

  “Maybe. But until then, I’m going to be a mother lion for her sake.”

  Moon of Rejoining, 1068 AR

  “And with that, my assault cyborgs are in range of your long gunners. I doubt they will withstand an attack of such might.”

  Nicola held a measuring tape from her animated plastic miniatures to those of her adversary. She rolled a seven with her two six-sided dice before to determine the range of her charge attack, and the miniatures were in range. The animated miniatures moved on their own until they were right next to the other set of miniatures depicting a squad of riflemen carrying futuristic long guns, and they started a brutal brawl.

  Unluckily for the men who only had laser bayonets as a means to defend themselves with in melee, the cyborgs attacked with dual-wielded plasma blades, which they carried at the expense of ranged options. It was an utter massacre, and soon the riflemen were returned to their lifeless plastic forms.

  “Gaaaah! Rematch! I demand a rematch!” Rinko shouted, holding her head with both hands and ruffling her hair. The two of them were observed by Hifumi, who raised a brow and continued to type away on her laptop afterwards.

  “Oh? You really think you can beat a strategist who has been wargaming for hundreds of years to command her marionettes? I like your confidence, girl, so keep coming at me!” Nicola declared with a grin and was met with a pouty expression from Rinko.

  “I’ll get you one day! This one was closer than the last game already! I’m learning, so don’t think you can rest on your laurels!”

  “Alright, alright, calm down, you two,” Hifumi said with a sigh, closing her laptop. “Mana and Arisu wanted to come to play today, so set up the adventure set instead, hm?”

  “Right, right! I’ll get it set up!” Rinko responded and swiftly pulled up several carrying cases with foam interiors. She put away the miniatures on Nicola’s large strategy tables and instead got out one of her board games while Nicola watched.

  Seika came in a few days ago, asking Nicola and Hifumi if they could make some time for this girl, and Nicola saw no reason to deny her, as long as it wouldn’t cut into her time with Hifumi, and she wasn’t busy defending her city. Since the High Enchantress sealed her home world, there had been no attacks anymore, anyway, so Nicola had lots of time on her hands.

  Rinko’s strange powers quickly caught her interest, however. Instead of giving a puppet false life, like her own cursed magic could do, Rinko temporarily animated them, with the pretense of life in their movements and expressions. She also had the ability to shrink people and turn them into game pieces, immersing them fully into the stories these miniatures told. Before long, entertaining this girl wasn’t just done as a favor for Seika, but out of genuine curiosity, and before she knew it, she even enjoyed their little war games themselves.

  Nicola had a short look around the room, just as Arisu and Mana appeared through a portal, greeting everyone present and watching Rinko’s preparation with impatient anticipation.

  Once again, Seika had made her life much more interesting.